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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 116 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  16. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. content — the amount
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. degree — an amount
  6. field — a subject
  7. content — happy
  8. net — for catching
  9. field — farmland
  10. row — a line
  11. degree — temperature
  12. vault — a safe
  13. field — for sport
  14. net — in sport
  15. net — after costs
  16. vault — in gymnastics
  17. row — to paddle
  18. vault — an arched ceiling

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com